18 Aug 2015

Prior to the signing Christian Benteke, I conducted a poll on the site asking fans how they felt about the prospect of Liverpool signing the Belgian. 58% of participants voted NO to bringing him to Anfield, but so far, Benteke appears to be doing okay for Liverpool, and England legend Gary Lineker is convinced that the 'unplayable' striker will be a top player for the Reds.

"Contrary to the thoughts of some, I think Benteke will score a lot of goals for Liverpool and prove to be an excellent signing".

I agree with this. If he stays fit, and receives better service, I have no doubt that Benteke will grab 20+ goals this season.

Benteke - who is reportedly on £140k-a-week - is already off the mark, and his battling performance against Bournemouth showed that he has the attributes to do well for Liverpool.

After the game, Brendan Rodgers outlined the positive aspects of Benteke's performance:

"His hold-up play is outstanding. He can help the ball on to areas, he can take the ball in, control and switch the game, his touch is good and you see him linking and combining.

“There was one moment when the ball came into the box, and because of his strength and power, he tried to make contact with it. It dropped and we had a chance with Coutinho to then shoot"

This is one time where I actually agree with the use of the word 'outstanding'. Rodgers has offered specific praise here, and focused on specific aspects of Benteke's game, which is the way praise should be used (as opposed to using the word as a general catch-all, which is meaningless).

Benteke is feeding off scraps at the moment, and the team's alleged attacking midfielders are not doing him any favours.

As noted in a previous articles, Henderson, Milner, Ibe, Coutinho, and Lallana, have created a total of SIX chances in two Premier League games, which is pathetic.

As a comparison, Benteke himself has created FOUR chances in two games, which is only two less than the other five players combined.

Benteke will need to create his own goals, too, but like any striker, he also needs service, and right now, that's largely non-existent.

There is one specific area in which Benteke needs to improve, and that's passing accuracy, which is currently running at 62% for the first two games.

Strikers usually have lower passing accuracy than the rest of the team (Luis Suarez rarely got above 75% for Liverpool), but With the greatest respect, 62% is terrible, and it's far below the team average of 80%.

It probably won't improve that much, though. Benteke averaged 65% passing accuracy in his three years at Aston Villa, but this is Liverpool, and that's just not going to cut it.

That said, if Benteke bangs in 20+ goals this season, then I doubt anyone will care about his passing accuracy.